Chandamama facts for kids
| Categories | Children's magazine |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Founded | 1947 |
| Final issue | 2013 |
| Company | Geodesic Limited (formerly Geodesic Information Systems Limited) |
| Country | India |
| Language | Telugu, Tamil (as Ambulimama), Kannada, Sanskrit, Assamese, Hindi, Odia (as Jahnamaamu), English, Marathi(as Chandoba), Malayalam (as Ambili Ammavan), and Bengali |
Chandamama was a much-loved Indian monthly magazine for children. It was famous for its beautiful illustrations. The magazine also published long, exciting stories about myths and magic that sometimes ran for many years.
Chandamama first started in Telugu language. It was created by B.Nagi Reddy and Chakrapani. They were well-known Telugu filmmakers. Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao, a close friend of Chakrapani and a very important writer in Telugu, edited the magazine for 28 years until he passed away in 1980.
In 2007, a company called Geodesic bought Chandamama. They wanted to bring the 60-year-old magazine into the digital age. However, the magazine stopped being published in 2013. This happened because the company that owned it faced financial problems.
Contents
About the Magazine
The magazine was known for its stories about Indian mythology. Many of these stories were written by Kutumbarao. He also helped new writers in Telugu. Other writers like Dasari Subrahmanyam wrote popular serials such as Patala Durgam.
In November 2008, Chandamama got a new look. It updated its language, artwork, and content. It still had old favorites like Vikram-Betal and mythological tales. But it also added new stories, adventure series, sports, technology, and news. Chandamama aimed to provide fun, thoughtful, and educational stories for young readers.
Chandamama was published in 13 different languages, including English. It reached about 200,000 readers every month.
Unique Storytelling Style
The magazine had a special way of telling stories. It often felt like a grandparent was telling you a tale. The stories always taught good values. They were told in a flexible third-person style.
The stories came from many places. These included old Indian texts and stories from other countries. Myths, epics, fables, and even useful folktales were rewritten. This helped to guide young minds in the right direction. At the same time, the stories were very entertaining.
One of the most famous story series was about King Vikramāditya and Vetala (a vampire). This was based on an old Sanskrit work called Baital Pachisi. It made the magazine very popular. These stories were even made into TV shows. In each story, the Vetala would ask King Vikramāditya a tricky question. The king would answer correctly, and the Vetala would fly away, making the king start his journey again.
Magazine Ownership
The magazine stayed in the founding family for a long time. B Viswanatha Reddy continued this tradition after his father. In 1999, the company became a public company. A company called Morgan Stanley bought a large part of it.
The last editor of Chandamama was Prashant Mulekar. He worked for Geodesic.
In 2007, the technology company Geodesic Information Systems bought Chandamama.
Chandamama in the Digital Age
After being bought by a technology company, Chandamama planned to go digital. They wanted to put much of their content online. They also released Chandamama Multimedia CDs.
In late 2007, Chandamama updated its website. This was to give readers more content beyond the printed magazine. They also worked with Worldspace, a satellite radio service. This brought Indian storytelling to radio listeners.
In July 2008, the magazine launched its online portal. It was available in Telugu, English, Hindi, and Tamil. They announced that all 60 years of their publications would soon be online.
Chandamama stopped publishing in all languages from March 2013. They did not give a public announcement or refunds to subscribers. A message on their Facebook page in May 2013 said they had technical problems. They hoped to restart publishing in July 2013. However, the official website also went down in July 2013. It said they were doing "enhancements and upgrades."
By July 2016, the original website was no longer active. The company let its ownership of the website expire.
In August 2017, a new website, chandamama.in, was started by volunteers. Their goal is to keep the Chandamama culture alive for future generations. This website offers old magazines in more than 10 languages for free. It continues to grow with community support.
- Chandamama at the Grand Comics Database
Images for kids
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Chandamama Magazine team in 1952
